Mis(sing)information: False Realities in the Entertainment and Performance Spheres

            In Lexicon of Lies: Terms for Problematic Information, Caroline Jack points to some of the major ways misinformation and disinformation spread. Within the first few pages, Jack emphasizes the dangers of computational systems which rely on algorithms concerned only with an item’s potential to trend (thereby creating a profit), but not with the item’s accuracy or intent (3). On this subject, Jack writes, “News content circulates on social media alongside entertainment content, and the lines between the two can be hard to discern” (4). This is especially true when that entertainment parodies news. This popular form of satire can quickly transform into misinformation when readers do not carefully read between the lines, discern a piece’s tone, or even check a site’s “about” tab for more information before sharing it with the incorrect context. A good example of this occurred in 2022 when a satirical news source on all things Disney (Mouse Trap News) posted an article and accompanying TikTok about Disney World’s plans to lower the legal age of drinking within park limits to 18. Within a matter of days, the video had accrued over 3 million views as a legitimate informational piece. Despite the news source’s clearly satirical name and its bio which reads, “Real Disney News That is 100% FAKE!” the story circulated like wildfire and even ended up on ABC 10 News.

Had Mouse Trap News’ piece simply existed in written form on their website, it’s hard to imagine it going as viral as it did on TikTok. This is undoubtedly the result of TikTok’s algorithmic structure as well as its presentational format. Because the video sparked attention, the platform’s algorithms promoted it even further. This was then exacerbated by a medium which encourages users to scroll speedily through the short videos fed to them through their FYPs without stopping long enough to check who is posting them. This example is interesting, because while Mouse Trap News did intentionally post about something fictitious for comedic purposes, to critique the money making machine that is Disney, they did not intend to participate in malicious disinformation. And yet, despite this, their post led to widespread misinformation which radiated outside the immediate Disney Adult imagined community.

The aforementioned example involving Mouse Trap News illustrates a complex example regarding the circulation of false information to simultaneously entertain and encourage viewers to reconsider their relationship with the Disney brand. Next, I’d like to turn to a perhaps even more complicated example of disinformation and misinformation at the intersection of politics, religion, and performance. In recent years, Shen Yun has become infamous across social media for its aggressive marketing campaigns—a fact that quickly became meme-ified in 2019.

 

 

Despite this public acknowledge of Shen Yun’s extensive publicity, few have explored its ties to the ideology its propaganda-cloaked-as-performance promotes. Though Shen Yun’s advertising claims that it is a theatrical experience spanning 5,000 years of Chinese history and though it is an event that features highly trained professionals, such characterizations of Shen Yun neglect to mention the force that makes it all possible—the Falu Gong, a nonprofit organization with anti-communist, anti-evolution, homophobic, racist politics. Perhaps the only end-of-times religion with its own thriving performing arts academy, the Falu Gong utilize Shen Yun to promote conspiracy theories and prejudice through song and dance. Intrigued by this enigmatic event, I attended Shen Yun in 2021 and was shocked by the magnitude of its unabashedly didactic messaging.

 

 

Woven throughout the musical numbers were tales of Chinese government officials harvesting the organs of young Falu Gong followers as well as natural disasters smiting the earth because of gay couples and humankind’s overreliance on technology. Ironic, then, that the entire performance relies upon a massive digital backdrop which transitions each number and features several wholly unnecessary special effects (including a tsunami in the shape of Karl Marx’s head), but that’s a discussion for a more in-depth research paper.

What I found particularly disturbing was the hate Shen Yun’s performance mapped not only onto the Chinese government, but onto China itself. As I looked incredulously around the audience during the final number, I realized the majority of people in attendance were elderly, white, and (based on their fervent nodding along to words bemoaning the corruption of today’s youth who are led astray by science) conservative. Within this echo chamber, those concert-goers were having their own biases about China confirmed by those they viewed as “authentic” representatives from China. In essence, Shen Yun utilizes a pre-existing Orientalist framework as a tool to promote their own historical narrative. As discussed by Rachel Kuo and Alice Marwick in “Critical Disinformation Studies: History, Power, and Politics,” disinformation is commonly disseminated through “the repetition of particular narratives and stereotypes” which often reify already established fear or hate based systems (3). In the context of Shen Yun, depicting Chinese citizens as evil, communist organ-harvesters allows the organization to build upon preconceived xenophobic beliefs within their viewers, thereby promoting the idea that China in its contemporary context is not what is truly (or purely) Chinese because of communism's influence. Shen Yun’s seemingly omnipresent advertisements which depict nothing at all aside from a dancer and a vaguely positive descriptor of their performance act as visual distractions which assert a sense of power and “traditional authenticity” over a version of Chinese history the Falu Gong has presented as truth for decades.